MuggleCast 49 Transcript
Show Intro
Melissa Anelli [Show Intro with music in background]: Coming to you from our Dance Dance Revolution Center in Las Vegas, Nevada…
Andrew: …this is MuggleCast Episode 49 for July 25, 2006.
[John Noe cheers in background]
Melissa: No, no, no. I’ve got a better idea. Forget the show. Let’s go do Dance Dance. I challenge you!
Andrew: Melissa, get off my show.
John: Tell me when.
Andrew: Go ahead.
John: Tell me when!
Andrew: Go ahead!
John: See why doe…[laughs] Hold on. See why GoDaddy.com is the world’s number one domain registrant. Enter the code “Ron” to receive 10% off your GoDaddy purchase for the next seven years.
[Everyone laughs]
John: Wait, what do I have – I forget what I have to say.
Andrew: [singing] Visit GoDaddy today!
Jamie: Well, considering Andrew’s previous experience with live MuggleCast…
Andrew: Excuse me, Jamie! Excuse me.
Jamie: Yes, Andrew?
Andrew: The music. Don’t you hear the music?
Jamie: No.
Eric: What music?
Jamie: I must admit I don’t.
Andrew: [turns up the volume and MuggleCast theme plays] You hear it now?
Jamie: Oh yeah, I do. Yeah, I do.
Eric: That’s pretty.
Andrew: It is. Isn’t this nice? Look, we have music. We’re like – like this is the intro we’re doing, right now.
Jamie: Ben standing there?
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: See why GoDaddy.com offers the best domain name registrations worldwide. Enter code “Ron” and you’ll receive…
Andrew: Hurry up! It’s going to play…
[Interrupted by Show Intro music]
Ben: Aaah!
Andrew [Intro music in background]: I knew that was going to happen. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the show. I’m Andrew Sims.
Ben: I’m Ben Schoen.
Kevin: I’m Kevin Steck.
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
[Long pause]
Jamie: Oh, sorry, and I’m Jamie Lawrence. [Phone rings] Okay, sorry.
Andrew: Jamie, you already screwed this up.
[Phone keeps ringing]
Jamie: Yeah, I know, because my phone’s just gone. I know that’s the worst timing ever. I’m – I’m really, really sorry.
Kevin: You do realize we’re live, Jamie, right?
Jamie: I do, I do. And I’m sure that everyone understands. Can I quickly answer this? One second.
Andrew: Eric – I mean Jamie – look at this. Live and he’s doing something. All right. Well, before we go anywhere else – first off, Micah Tannenbaum is standing by in the MuggleCast News Center with the past week’s top Harry Potter news stories.
News
Micah: CBBC Newsround conducted an interview earlier this week with Evanna Lynch. In it, she talks about getting the role of Luna, reactions from fans, and much more. There are transcript, video, and pictures available. Be sure to check out EvannaLynchFans.com for the latest news on the actress playing Luna Lovegood.
ComicBookResources.com has posted a report on what Order of the Phoenix director David Yates and Dan Radcliffe had to say at Comic-Con. They talked about Professor Umbridge, Hagrid’s half-brother Grawp, and Dan tried to get a word in concerning his big kissing scene. You can check out the full report over on MuggleNet.com.
Cinemark, America’s third biggest theater chain, has announced that it plans to use “Real D” technology in 150 theaters by the end of 2007, thus attracting more audiences. Real D enables a single digital projector to beam images that seem to move toward or away from viewers wearing special glasses. While we already know that Order of the Phoenix will be played in IMAX theaters, the company has apparently discussed with Order of the Phoenix producers the idea of including some 3-D scenes in the movie for some non-IMAX theaters.
James Krasner, a professor of English and British Victorian literature at the University of New Hampshire, has spoken out on the recent media frenzy over two characters dying in the seventh book, and why it won’t be Harry who meets his death. He said: “Whenever an author’s books become very popular in his or her lifetime, as is the case with Rowling, a tug of war starts between the author and the fans about who the characters really belong to. Rowling, like Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), is trying to assert her control. She’s reminding us that Harry is her character, not ours; she can kill him if she wants to. Doyle actually did kill off Sherlock Holmes, but Rowling won’t go that far because she cares about Harry. Conan Doyle was really sick of Holmes,” Krasner says.
TV Guide recently spoke with Jason Issacs, the actor who plays Lucius Malfoy in the Potter films, including the upcoming Order of the Phoenix. Jason spoke about when he will begin filming the fifth film and how exciting he thinks it will be to shoot the battle in the Ministry.
Finally, Sony Classics has confirmed on their official website that Rupert’s film, Driving Lessons, will indeed be released on October 13th, 2006.
That’s all the news for this July 23, 2006 edition of MuggleCast. Enjoy the live shows!
Andrew: Okay, thank you Micah.
First LIVE Show
Andrew: Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this live MuggleCast. This is our first one. I think everything’s going smoothly, except for our server guys told me that the Skype people are a little loud. That would be Jamie, Kevin and Eric. So…
Kevin: Oh.
Eric: Okay!
Andrew: …you guys just, you know, kick it back a little bit. Don’t forget you can submit live feedback: MuggleCast.com slash live. [laughs] You should change that to apex.html…
Ben: MuggleCast slash live. MuggleCast.com slash live.
Andrew: …to submit live feedback to the show, you can submit whatever you want. You can submit Listener Rebuttals, right here, while we’re talking, basically. So, if we’re discussing something and you’re like “Oh, wait a second, hold up,” or something – “I disagree with this,” feel free to go to MuggleCast.com slash live, and then we’ll get your live feedback and we will respond to it on the air. Not everyone’s, but, you know.
Announcements
Andrew: We have a few announcements this week. First of all, do not forget, – Jamie, please especially you, do not forget to purchase your MuggleCast t-shirt.
Jamie: I must admit, I did almost forget. I haven’t heard it for so long.
Andrew: It did.
Jamie: It slipped my mind, you know. I did, yeah.
Andrew: And Lumos 2006 and NYC 2006 are quickly approaching. They are approaching so fast that Ben Schoen is already here. He just walked away from the computer, but he is here with me in the studio this week. Ben, do you like being with me?
Ben: Not really.
Andrew: Why not?
Ben: He smells. The worst breath ever.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: I beg to differ. My voice – er, my breath smells voluptuous.
Jamie: [laughs] Voluptuous.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Twenty minutes ago, Andrew and I ran out to a convenient store called WaWa because I had a craving for some diet soda.
Andrew: And…
[Ben laughs]
Jamie: And that’s why we started late.
Ben: Yeah. [Laughs]
Andrew: Yes. Actually, yeah, I blame it on Eric. If you’re hearing Skype sounds, don’t mind that. That’s just Skype being you know, Skype.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: And, do not forget, the Podcast – well, you can forget, because the [laughs] the Podcast Awards are now – well, nominations are now closed. We will be hearing if we did get a nomination within the next week or so, and then the voting will begin. So stand by for next week’s show. We’ll let you know if we did pick up a nomination. Then…
Jamie: And also…
Andrew: Yes, Jamie.
Jamie: Don’t forget to R.S.V.P. for Lumos and NYC…
Andrew: Oh, I forgot.
Jamie: …and ten points to anyone who can still remember what R.S.V.P. stands for.
Eric and Ben: Rpondez, s’il vous pla”t.
Eric: Rpondez, s’il vous pla”t. Rpondez, s’il vous pla”t. Rpondez, s’il vous pla”t.
Andrew: That might be the…
Ben: Eric. Hey, Eric. Tone it down a notch, let’s tone it down.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: You don’t get 50 points for saying it three times.
Ben: One final…
Eric: Oh, yay.
Andrew: Let’s not get into this.
Ben: One final announcement we have this week is vote for MuggleCast on Podcast Alley.
Andrew: Right!
Ben: Right now, if there are 150 people listening, that’ll give us enough votes to overtake PotterCast – not PotterCast, to overtake everyone forever, okay – to put us at No. 1. So you go ahead and vote for MuggleCast on Podcast Alley today. Please.
Kevin: That slip is going to cost you, Ben.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: And if you do…
Ben: I know.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: What’d you slip? What’d you say?
Jamie: You’re going downhill.
[Andrew laughs]
Kevin: Oh, you’re so going downhill.
Andrew: This is live, folks! Well, actually, I think we might edit the live one just a little bit.
Ben: Maybe.
Andrew: I don’t know. It depends on what we say.
Kevin: You really can’t. Don’t edit.
Andrew: If we’re the top Podcast on Podcast Alley at the end of the month, Eric, what are you going to do for the listeners?
Eric: I don’t know. I said I’d sing, but I’m not sure about that anymore.
Andrew: What?
Jamie: He’s going to stop talking for five minutes.
Eric: No, no, no. Save gas money, seriously. Yeah, save gas money.
Jamie: Yes, say yes, man!
Eric: Oh, by the way, can I do an update about that?
Andrew: Sure. Real quick.
Eric: Okay, we’re just going to – anybody who’s interested in saving gas money, I call you the “Gas Guzzlers.” We’re going to meet in the lobby of the J. W. Marriott on July 27th after Harry and the Potters, which will be around 10:15 pm on that night. So, that’s it. Just meet me there and bring your Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Thank you!
Andrew: And also, we have…
Jamie: Eric, that was good.
Eric: Thank you.
Andrew: Yeah, that was awful quick. That was sweet, thanks.
Kevin: It was, yeah.
Book Reading Giveaway
Andrew: Also, we have a special giveaway exclusively for our live visitors right now.
Ben: Just for you.
Andrew: We are giving away one ticket to night two of JK Rowling’s reading with Stephen Fry and John Irving.
Ben: No.
Jamie: Sorry, no, it’s Stephen King.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Stephen King! I always screw that up. [Laughs] I always screw that up. Stephen King and John Irving – right this very second. Actually, we’re going to give it away at the end of the show – but to enter, and this is for the live listeners only – go to our live feedback and type in “I want to win the JK Rowling book reading ticket.” [laughs]
Jamie: Dot com.
Andrew: Dot com. No, go to MuggleCast.com/live and put in the little body of your feedback, “I want to win the JK Rowling giveaway ticket.” It is for the Orchestra 3 Section, Row FF, Seat 304. The seat is really nice, and this contest is sponsored by JKR’s Army, which is a group on MuggleNet.com to help protect you guys from being scammed online, and you can get to their page by going to the Merchandise link on the Nav Bar on MuggleNet.com. We’ll have a link in the Show Notes of course, but to go there, submit it. And then, at the end of the show when we have live call-ins we will ask one of our callers to pick a number between one and the amount of entries that we receive, and then…
Jamie: Four million.
Andrew: …that person – it will be four million. An then that person will receive the ticket. They will have to pick it up at the live – nice welcome, whoever just signed on, on AOL.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: [laughs] They will have to pick it up at our live Podcast in New York City, which is on August 2nd. Oh – oh my gosh, we already got one feedback. Go, click it. This is – Dana from Wisconsin wants it. She’s our first entry so far.
Ben: And remember, you actually have to be in New York City on August 2nd.
Andrew: Yeah, you have to be there to pick up the ticket. [Laughs]
Ben: Otherwise, it won’t work very well.
Andrew: Yeah, so good luck to everyone.
Listener Rebuttals – Room of Requirement
Andrew: Listener Rebuttals this week: our first one comes from Jordan, 15, of Massachusetts:
Ben:
Andrew: That’s a great example, and we got a TON of feedback on the Room of Requirement with last week’s Episode 58, because people seem to think that we missed this huge point that Jordan just pointed out. So thanks to her for that. Another feedback comes from Erica, 13, of Virginia.
Jamie: Ooo!
Andrew: What, Jamie?
Eric: What, Jamie?
Jamie: Can we talk about it? [Laughs]
Eric: I think it’s really cool. It’s a good interpretation on what you would get if you asked for a certain room, and we did miss that. I think that was cool.
Jamie: Don’t you think it’s kind of similar to the discussion we had about the Mirror?
Kevin: Definitely.
Jamie: As in it has limitations and…
Kevin: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say.
Jamie: It can’t give you exactly what you want, what you really, really want, obviously. But yeah.
Ben [Sings]: Give you everything that you want…
Jamie: I’ve lost where I’m going, completely.
Andrew: That’s okay. This is live.
Kevin: Well, I was going to say that although the Room may be able to provide you with the things that may help you, I believe it still has limitations to how far it can help you.
Jamie: Yeah, but if you – if you, like, wanted a steak…
[Kevin laughs]
Jamie: Would you find a cow and a knife and a barbecue, or would you find a steak?
[Eric laughs]
Jamie: ‘Cause I think you’d find a steak, to be fair.
Andrew: Well, I don’t think the Room of Requirement is to provide people’s steaks.
Jamie: But if you’re starving and you really, really, really, really want one.
Eric: I don’t know, let’s open that one up to the listeners. [laughs]
Andrew: Well, maybe they’ll show how to make the steak. [laughs] Not give you a cow, but…
Jamie: Free your mind, Andrew!
Eric: A cow and a knife? I don’t know.
Andrew: Maybe they’ll get a butcher or something. Anyway, before we go on to the next Rebuttal, we got a lot of feedback, actually.
Ben: E-mail.
Andrew: These are people saying they want the ticket. I think we’re up to – how many? We’re getting them by the second. We just went from 81 to 94.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I think the feedback’s working. Next Listener Rebuttal comes from Erica, 13, of Virginia also in response to the Room of Requirement:
Ben: I’m kind of confused about what she’s meaning. I don’t know.
p>Eric: I think she means Draco Malfoy, like when Trelawney went in to hide her sherry bottles and she entered.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But I thought it was the same room that Draco was in.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. I was going to say that. Didn’t she just find that huge room and she just hid the bottles in there?
Eric: Yeah, because he – well, no. I think it was a smaller room because Draco – like, she heard him, but he turned around then and did his darkness powder thing.
Jamie: Oh yeah.
Eric: So that was the same room that they were in.
Ben: One little update here: Leila, please stop submitting that you want to win the JK Rowling tickets.
Andrew: [laughs] We get it!
Ben: The more times you submit it does not mean your going to have more chances to win. So…
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: This is not a random drawing. Well, it sort of is, but we’re going to be able to tell. Yeah, so only submit one, please. Next listener rebuttal.
Listener Rebuttals – More Room of Requirement
Ben: This comes from Chris, age 23, from Chicago, once again the Room of Requirement. “Filch uses it whenever he runs out of cleaning products and what-not. It makes a store cupboard of products that he takes out and uses. So yes, you can take things out.”
Jamie: But doesn’t this kind of contradict that you…
Ben: Last week we were debating over…what?
Jamie: That you can’t make something from nothing. So if he takes them out, can he keep them? Can he take them up to his room and store them there and use them again, or do you have to put them back?
Ben: What I mean is that it comes from somewhere.
Eric: Yeah, well.
Ben: If that make sense.
Eric: If Filch keeps taking stuff out – I don’t know, that’s really weird. But if he keeps – if he runs out of supplies and then goes and gets supplies, maybe they don’t need to make something from nothing.
Andrew: Well, the problem with this rebuttal was that he didn’t provide an exact page and I meant to mention that before we read this.
Eric: Weren’t we inclining…
Andrew: Anyway – go ahead.
Eric: I’m sorry.
Andrew: No, go ahead.
Eric:Last week, weren’t we inclining to say that it was a little bit weird that, you know, that there’s like this giant stock room that it can only pull from. So, did we decide whether it has to come from somewhere or not? Could it just…
Jamie: I don’t think we reached a conclusion, just like we never do.
[Eric and Jamie laugh]
Eric: Because that would be a really, really big room of stuff the Room of Requirement could actually use. I don’t think that would make sense. Maybe it does come from nothing. Hmmm.
Main Discussion – Magical Schools
Andrew: Alright, so now we are going to move on to our main discussion this week. I know that we just lost a connection, so I think everyone is going to be reconnecting right now. But Jamie, you put together this fantastic main discussion on magical schools.
Jamie: Okay. This came from the fact that I thought – I remember Jo said in an interview that there were a thousand students that went to Hogwarts, and I remember there was quite a lot of discussion about this. And people thought it didn’t seem right because of how many people you saw in the film with how many people it talked about in the books; and everyone reached a conclusion, or it was a general consensus, that there were 300 people at the school. So if we assume that there are 300 people at Durmstrang and Beauxbatons as well, then that’s 900 magical children in the world, and that doesn’t seem very many considering how big the magical community is. There’s a Ministry for Magic here, there’s probably – it’s likely that there’s one abroad as well, in several countries. So I think – what’s happening here? Are we missing something, or is it just an error in the books?
Kevin: Well, I think there’s an inconsistency with the – I guess it’s sort of like an illusion of a lot of people, but it’s not necessarily as many as we think.
Jamie: No, that’s not…
Kevin: I mean, you have to remember that when we saw the Quidditch World Cup and they showed all of these wizarding people, it was from Harry’s perspective. So from Harry’s perspective, there were loads of people, but loads of people to Harry could be 2,000 people.
Ben: Yeah, these definitely aren’t the only three schools.
Kevin: That’s correct, yeah.
Ben: Because there has to be a school in America.
Jamie: It’s impossible – yeah.
Kevin: But it would be fitting to think that wizards aren’t all that commonplace. They only make up a very small portion of the world community, so you would think that there weren’t very many.
Jamie: Is that true, though? That wouldn’t make them small.
Kevin: I would assume so. You have to remember they’re small enough that they can blend in and…
Jamie: Well, they’re clever enough to blend in, though. It could just be there are a lot of them, and they’re spread through out the world. But they’re – after however many centuries of blending in with people, they can work it pretty well. But I just can’t believe that there are any less than a normal sort of human population.
Eric: Yeah. I think so.
Jamie: It doesn’t seem right.
Eric: I agree with Jamie. I don’t think JKR, throughout the whole series, has ever kept it on a small scale.
Jamie: Right.
Eric: If you look at it, the wizards have their own rock band, The Weird Sisters. They have Celestina Warbek. They have their own love songs. They have their own radio station.
Kevin: Yeah, but that’s part of any community.
Eric: Well, one of the things that does support the smaller community aspect or the scale of things is that Hogsmeade is the only apparently all wizarding – you know…
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: Or was that in Britain or in the world? Was it just…?
Jamie: That was Britain, I think.
Kevin: Britain.
Eric: Britain, okay.
Jamie: Well, doesn’t that just suggest that wizards are blending in with humans more and that’s just one where they can all…
Kevin: Yeah, but that’s what I’m saying. I mean, the more wizards you have blending in with quote-unquote “normal people,” you’re going to draw attention just by doing that. I mean, you have to remember – look at Ron’s house. It is definitely a wizarding house.
Jamie: Yeah.
Kevin: And if you had millions of houses through out Britain that were like that, you would think that at least some people would, you know, take notice.
Eric: Especially…
Kevin: I think it’s small scale enough so that they blend in to the point where no one notices.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: Especially because wizards don’t seem to be the most up-to-date on how to blend in with Muggles. You know, it seems there would have to be a small population, because otherwise there would be no reason why Muggles shouldn’t know. But then again…
Jamie: Of course there is, of course there is. There are loads of reasons.
Eric: The wizards always do boast about how little the Muggles actually see.
Jamie: Exactly, and…
Eric: How much they notice.
Jamie: But if the – you couldn’t expect the Muggles to live with the wizards in harmony, because they’d want magical solutions to their problems.
Eric: True. I mean – right.
Jamie: They’d want to see spells. It takes a wizard to understand that it isn’t that kind of “wow” magic. Its a lifestyle.
Kevin: Either that, or they just wouldn’t understand it.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: There’s a difference between living along side and knowing about it. I mean, I think wizards could live amongst Muggles without the Muggles actually knowing what they were.
Ben: At least, they’re doing that now aren’t they.
Kevin: Yeah, but see, that’s what I find hard to believe, because just for example, Harry and Ron with the invisibility car.
Eric: Mmmm.
Kevin: That was one pair of kids that made themselves public in front of all these Muggles.
Ben: But would it uphold in the whole Department of Ministry.
Kevin: What would happen if you had millions of children doing that?
Eric: Hmmm.
Jamie: But it’s like…
Eric: It’s kind of a little bit too careless.
Kevin: Exactly. The whole story caters to the fact that there’s a small community and not some huge uncontrollable beast, you know?
Ben: Right, but there’s a whole department within the Ministry for that.
Kevin: Yes, I understand that, but can…
Ben: And the Obliviators that’s dedicated to preventing that from happening…
Kevin: I understand.
Ben: …preventing it from getting out.
Kevin: Yes, I understand you could control, but two million…
Eric: Well, again – again Kevin, there is a Salem Witch School that JKR mentions in – I think its either Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them or, sorry, Quidditch Through the Ages, something like that – Quidditch Through the Ages, all these other schools, all these other places. It seems like the sky is the limit with JKR about how expansive her world is. She really wants to make it this huge, giant world with…
Kevin: Oh yes. I’m not arguing that they’re spread out, but what I’m saying is…
Eric: Yeah, I understand.
Kevin: …they’re not in high enough concentration in anywhere in the world that twenty people in a single Ministry cannot take care of it. Do you know what I’m saying?
Eric: Which is interesting – I mean, I know what your saying, but I’m just – with having a…
Kevin: Because mistakes are bound to happen, and the more people you have, the more mistakes are bound to happen.
Eric: Right.
Ben: Well, here’s what I think.
Kevin: I find it hard to believe that a single department can take care of a million people like the scale is.
Eric: But what’s interesting to me is that Hogwarts – is Hogwarts the school for everybody in Britain to go to, every wizard in Britain, and is Beauxbatons the only French school for everybody in France to go to? You know, all the wizards. Is that how that works?
Kevin: I’m not really sure if its… Has she ever truly distinguished?
Eric: Because – well, we’ve seen people like Seamus Finnigan come from a distinctive region in Britain or Wales. I don’t know exactly where, but it seemed that all of – pretty much Britain, all of England, was represented at Hogwarts and all of – so it would make sense that if you’re a wizard and if you live in that country, if you live in that area, you would go to Hogwarts, and if you live in France you would go to Beauxbatons. So the question is though, about the small population thing, Hogwarts only holding either 300 or even 1,000 – my high school holds 1,200 people, and that’s just in a few maybe square miles of school. You know, Britain is bigger than Burkes’ County. So you’d think there’d be a lot more people.
Jamie: Don’t forget…
Kevin: Well I think…
Jamie: Go on Kevin.
Kevin: Oh. What I was going to say is I think that there are quite a few wizards, I’m not arguing that. But I’m saying that they’re spread out throughout billions of people in the world, and they’re not in high enough concentration to say, “Hey! We’re wizards.” And actually, we had some feedback from Kim that just said “At the Quidditch World Cup, the stadium held hundreds of thousands of people, and it sold out.”
Jamie: Yeah. But I was going to…
Kevin: How – okay, continue. Sorry.
Jamie: It’s okay. I was just going to say that in Goblet of Fire, we saw the Bulgarian minister, so it’s clear that the Ministry of Magic is just a domestic thing.
Kevin: A small subsidiary, yeah.
Jamie: Well, no. It’s just a domestic thing. There’s no ‘Wizarding World Government’. It’s just like there’s one on each continent, country, so there’s clearly a population in each country. I just think there’s got to be more than a few thousand wizards, because they’d be close to extinction.
Kevin: But…
Jamie: If you think the war between Voldemort and the Order of the Phoenix has got to branch, that has to include a few thousand, including people who fight on a sort of rim, just in that. So I just don’t think that a few thousand’s that reasonable of an estimate.
Ben: There has to be tons.
Kevin: I wouldn’t say that a few thousand is a reasonable estimate, but I wouldn’t say that they’re anywhere compared to the normal, average person’s population. How many people are living in London right now?
Jamie: About 8 million.
Kevin: Exactly. And how many from London are going to Hogwarts, which is the closest school to it?
Jamie: No – loads, yeah. I completely agree, but do you think that just means that there’s eight per country?
Kevin: What was that? You broke out.
Jamie: Sorry. Do you think that just means there’s one school per country?
Kevin: Maybe not necessarily, but all I’m saying is that if there’s eight million people in London, and there’s how many have been named in Hogwarts? 900 or 1000?
Eric: Yeah.
Kevin: Imagine eight to one thousand – eight million compared to a thousand children.
Eric: That’s like looking at…
Ben: Its also important to remember that in one of the books, Draco’s dad was thinking about sending him to Durmstrang, so they’re not required to go to the school that’s within their own country.
Kevin: Oh absolutely, yes.
Eric: But at the same time…
Kevin: It impairs them in a demographic way.
Andrew: And I still…
Eric: And I wouldn’t think if Hogwarts didn’t fit you, I wouldn’t think that you would have to be sent to Germany or Bulgaria to go to school.
Kevin: And I would think that’s a lot like current public schools where your first – the normal school to go to is the closest school to you.
Eric: Yeah.
Kevin: But every once in awhile, you get a few parents that don’t want their kid going to that school and…
Eric: Yeah.
Kevin: …they pull them out. But still, I mean, that ratio is still there. It’s a thousand students to eight million people in just London alone. We’re not talking about surrounding areas.
Eric: Yeah. So that number seems incredibly off.
Kevin: Exactly, and that’s what I’m saying. I think that there’s a significant body of wizards, but I don’t think there are huge amounts. I mean, it’s still a very large ratio.
Eric: I still think it has to be above a thousand – I mean just – like you said, it’s…
Kevin: Well, what I’m saying is how many people are in the world? You’re looking at –
Eric: Oh, 6.5 billion.
Kevin: Exactly.
Jamie: Yeah, 6.5 billion, about.
Kevin: So out of 6.5 billion, if you do that ratio, you’re looking at a couple million wizards.
Eric: But if that’s correct – but I don’t think it is. I can’t understand why there’s only one thousand children in – I mean, how many children are there in England under the age of 17, in all of Britain? It’s probably a significant amount in the millions. And for only a thousand to be – I just think that number is off, I think that number is incredibly off. I think there would be – if Hogwarts is the only school in England, there would be a lot more kids there.
Live Feedback – Marrying Muggles
Andrew: Hold up, because Michael from Baltimore, Maryland submitted some live feedback here: “There’s also the fact that wizards and witches have had to marry Muggles or they would have died off, so maybe the population of wizard children isn’t that big. So it’s very possible that Hogwarts could hold all wizard kids in Britain.”
Ben: And it’s also important to remember that there is also Muggleborns that are being born too.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: I said that.
Ben: No you didn’t! You said that they’re…
Andrew: Oh. [laughs]
Jamie: But then perhaps you should accept – you know, instead of making a distinction between wizards and witches and Muggles, you should divide it by people who know and are aware of the magical world. And those that don’t – obviously that brings you into a gray area when you come to the Dursleys, who are clearly completely aware of it but completely hate it. But there’s obviously a complete difference between a Muggle who hasn’t ever experienced the magical world, and Petunia who’s grown up with a witch but doesn’t have any magical powers herself.
Kevin: Yeah.
Live Feedback – Voldemort’s Reign of Terror
Andrew: Another interesting live feedback right now – Sarah and Laura from Austin, Texas. They say: “You have to take into consideration that the kids at Hogwarts now were born during Voldemort’s reign of terror. People may have been reluctant to have children during a very unsafe time.”
Jamie: Yes, good point.
Eric: Yeah but, how reluctant? I mean it’s not that we’re seeing Hogwarts having all these empty classrooms because everybody’s parents stopped having kids around that time. If anything, Molly Weasley said that people were rushing into families and starting their families now – or at the time of Voldemort’s terror – just in case there was no tomorrow.
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: But it’s also… What I think is interesting too is how do you – is there like a certain selection criteria in order to get you into Hogwarts? Because in Half-Blood Prince we see Dumbledore mention that Voldemort’s name was down since birth. And do you have to be a certain caliber wizard for that quill to actually write your name down, or is it all the wizarding children in Britain?
Kevin: Well, I would think…
Ben: Because that might explain how there are only 900 students who are going there because it may be more discriminatory about who to admit and who they don’t.
Kevin: I don’t – yeah, but I don’t think they discriminate. I think the main criteria is being able…
Eric: That you…
Kevin: …to cast magic – use magic.
Eric: Yeah, I mean…
Kevin: They have a responsibility to make sure you as a kid, you’re not going to expose yourself as a wizard.
Jamie: Yeah.
Kevin: Because then you become different, you attract attention, and it’s very bad. So I believe that’s the only criteria, someone who can cast magic.
Live Feedback – Homeschooling Wizards
Jamie: Elizabeth brings up – Elizabeth from Poulsbo, WA… Where’s that? Don’t know.
Ben: Wisconsin? No… WA – Washington!
Jamie: Washington, yeah. She brings up the point that: “Who knows, perhaps there is a large population of homeschooling wizards.” I think [laughs] – I’ve got this in the show notes, and I think that that could actually be. Because surely their parents can teach them how to wave a wand?
Kevin: Yeah, but also, you’d have to compare it to current homeschool students here. I mean, how many kids out of a school district are homeschooled?
Jamie: Yeah, but don’t forget…
Ben: That may be different in the magical world, though.
Jamie: But the…
Ben: Man, I think that – I’m not – stop homeschooling kids. I think they’re less likely to be homeschooled in the wizarding world, because it seems to me that in order to become – to get a better job, like it is in most schools, you have to go to a good school to get a good job.
Eric: Oh.
Ben: And if you’re homeschooled, especially where you’re just having your parents teach you magic, they may not be skilled in terms of Potions, Transfiguration, Charms and all that – enough to be able to teach you.
Live Feedback – Every Wizarding Child Goes To Hogwarts
Kevin: I just got a live feedback from Claire in France saying, “JKR says every wizarding child goes to Hogwarts on her website.”
Eric: Yeah, and that’s really weird.
Andrew: There you go Ben.
Kevin: And I believe the reason…
Ben: Well, I screwed up.
Kevin: And I think the reason for that is that there are restrictions legally within the wizarding world on where and when children can use magic.
Jamie: But do you think that the homeschooling aspect – I was going to say that obviously, as you were saying, Kevin, it seems that the magical population are – I don’t want to say oppressed a race, but they clearly are this sort of non-evident race on Earth.
Kevin: Yeah, they…
Jamie: So, I mean, obviously, I’m sure there’s some…
Kevin: They don’t want to impose themselves.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. But more than that, I think – do you think that some wizarding parents could think, “Well, I don’t want my child going out and fraternizing with Muggles,” when you don’t know what could happen to him if they found out that he’s a wizard. Obviously that doesn’t count at Hogwarts…
Kevin: Oh, you mean like someone segregating…
Jamie: …but they could get a bit worried about him.
Kevin: Like segregation due to being a wizard?
Jamie: Yeah, yeah perhaps.
Kevin: Well, I think that’s also a reason why the kids do go to school. Because the wizarding community – just because you’re a Muggle, doesn’t mean that you can’t have a non-Muggle child.
Jamie: Yeah.
Kevin: So I think the whole point of educating the children in the school is trying to prevent that segregation of the population.
Jamie: Yeah, I think that’s right.
Kevin: I mean, you have to remember, they may be wizards, but they’re still human.
Jamie: Yeah.
Kevin: And, you know, there’s no boundaries with who you’re going to love, so…
Wizarding Primary School?
Eric: Huh. So guys, I have two more topics I’d like to at least suggest for this about schooling in the wizarding world. Is that okay?
Jamie: Yep!
Andrew: We’re all…
Eric: Okay, cool. One of them is we hear that, at least with Hogwarts, kids are contacted at the age of eleven, and from the age eleven they go to school. Now, Harry himself went to – not Stilmahod, but whatever – primary school?
Jamie: Yeah, primary school.
Eric: But up until around I guess it was fourth grade, fifth grade, something like that. Now at Hogwarts, they of course teach all magical classes, meaning things like Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Calculus, Trigonometry, things like that, wizards aren’t ever taught. So I’m thinking and I’m going through the books reading, and every time I read the books you have to realize that actually, as far as regular Muggle world goes, Harry and pretty much anybody…
Jamie: Previous experience before it – yeah.
Eric: …only really has a fourth or fifth grade education.
Kevin: That’s true, yeah.
Jamie: Oh yeah, definitely.
Eric: You know, formally.
Kevin: Yeah, but you have to see the reasoning behind that. For the same reason why wizards don’t make themselves apparent within the population – it’s because they have somewhat of an advantage over the normal population.
Eric: Meaning they just know – they’re doing so many…
Kevin: Exactly. They’re using something that can help them practically, just like in high school you’re taught things that can help you practically. You know –
Eric: Kind of like the difference between getting a degree and studying a trade.
Kevin: Exactly.
Eric: OK.
Kevin: That’s the way I view it, at least.
Other Schools And Their Role Against Voldemort
Eric: Okay. Now what about – we talked about other schools kind of in other countries, but this whole thing about small populations of wizards – what do you think they’re doing about the war on Voldemort? Especially the Americans over at I guess Salem Witchcraft in Massachusetts, or whatever. Here’s this guy who’s supposed to be the worst wizard, worst dark wizard ever, and he’s not really exactly affecting America just yet, but what do you think these other countries are doing? Because if there is a small wizard population, I don’t think there’s really this full scale effort against Voldemort or that the Americans would even be concerned about it…
Kevin: Well, I would…
Eric: …except to say that maybe it might one day may come to us.
Kevin: I would assume that it would be something similar to what we do nowadays in current world events, which is show our support through…
Ben: Invade them?
Kevin: …people and supplies and such like that.
Jamie: Diplomacy.
Kevin: Yep. It’d be because – if they are, like Jamie said, “domestic entities”, then there has to be some sort of diplomatic ties between them to bring them together, and I’m assuming that’s what they use to get help and provide help.
Eric: Hmmm. So do you think we’ll be seeing a lot more of other country fighters against Voldemort in Book Seven? Like where it’s kind of this whole world scale effort against Voldemort? Because the thing is, whereas Book Seven needs to be this Harry-Voldemort thing, it also kind of should be a whole world war, basically, put into perspective. Or do you…
Ben: Well, there needs to be cooperation on multiple levels.
Kevin: Also…
Ben: There has to be cooperation with the houses, there has to be cooperation between purebloods, half-bloods, Mudbloods – and of course there has to be international magical cooperation, which is what Goblet of Fire was all about. Because you have the French people, you have the Bulgarians, and it’s all about uniting to be one.
Eric: I like that Ben.
Ben: United we stand, divided we fall.
Andrew: Awww.
Kevin: You have to remember that magic really has no boundaries. Just because Voldemort is in England now doesn’t mean he can’t apparate to the United States.
Eric: No, no, that makes sense. Yeah.
Kevin: You know, so…
Jamie: Can I quickly reply to a live feedback from Erica from Australia?
Kevin: Sure.
Live Feedback – More To Magic
Jamie: She says that when I said “wave a wand” – she thinks, “There’s more to magic than waving a wand and how much would their parents be able to teach?” I agree completely, but I think that it’s kind of like how – I think to wizards, teaching Transfigurations, Charms, everything is just – is parallel to teaching Maths, English in the Muggle world. But also, from what I’ve personally seen at Hogwarts in the books and the films, teaching is more – it seems to be more like a university atmosphere where you just get on and do it yourself and it’s practice. So, I think if someone’s committed, they could probably learn to do basic things at home. And also, somebody asked if there’s a wizard college – a few people have asked that – and I think Jo said that there definitely wasn’t. After NEWTS, that’s it.
Eric: Well, take a look at the mindset of the Ministry of Magic as far as underage magic goes. Remember, Dumbledore told Harry – in Book Six he cleared this up, which was helpful – that if you are an underage wizard, you can actually use magic underage if you’re in a household. If you live in a wizarding household, they can’t detect magic. So it would seem that law would support homeschooling because a parent could tell their child, “Practice this,” and then their child could practice, and the Ministry wouldn’t know any different. So homeschooling wouldn’t technically be against wizarding law, or at least nobody would – you wouldn’t keep getting letters saying, “Stop doing these charms, you’re underage.”
Jamie: Yeah.
Kevin: Well that’s one of the reasons why I said that homeschooling probably isn’t very viable for that community due to the laws and restrictions placed upon the domestic government.
Eric: Wait, you’re saying it is viable or isn’t?
Kevin: It is not.
Eric: Oh. But why? Because they couldn’t tell if you live in a wizard family.
Kevin: Because…
Eric: Dumbledore said that the parents are responsible. He says it’s the parent’s responsibility to control their children.
Kevin: Okay, I’ll give you a great example.
Eric: Okay.
Kevin:You go to college currently to learn what calculus or programming or art or whatever you’re going to learn, right?
Eric: Mhm.
Kevin: Why would you go to college when you could turn around and go to your parents and have them teach you that?
Eric: Because the college is more educated.
Kevin: Exactly, because your parents cannot provide the level of education.
Homeschooling
Eric: Well yeah, but that’s an argument with homeschooling is whether the institution is better or not. But I can’t see the wizarding world – I mean, I’m saying wizarding education, it seems like it would be a lot better in schools than at home, especially because of the diverse branches of magic that parents certainly would not explore all of with their kids. They would teach their kids what they felt they would need to know. Just like ancient civilizations with trades. You learn one single trade, and your whole family was in it forever. I mean, I…
Kevin: Yeah.
Eric: Wizard schooling would be better, but I’m saying that wizarding home schooling – if it is possible, I certainly don’t think that they would have – that they would get course books sent home. Something like the home schooling situation here, but at the same time you could still probably teach kids. I don’t know, are we…
Kevin: I don’t – I honestly don’t see someone able to teach all of the – all of the technical knowledge on the…
Eric: Then that goes back to the thing. If kids are not allowed to be home schooled – if kids are not allowed to be home schooled, then what school do they go to? Because if Hogwarts only has a thousand people, that either means there’s basically no wizards throughout the world or it means that there’s an inconsistency.
Live Feedback – Magical Schools Around The World
Jamie: I was going to – Claire from France is writing in to completely correct us and say that at the World Cup, Harry and Ron, I think it was, ran into the Salem Witches Institute in America, so there clearly are other magical schools around the world.
Eric: Right.
Kevin: Oh yeah, we all…
Jamie: And that’s proof. So should we move on? I think we pretty much wrapped up that discussion.
Andrew: Yeah, we killed it.
Jamie: But didn’t reach any conclusions, again.
Kevin: Of course.
Andrew: This the whole purpose of the show. We do not really reach any conclusion and there is no point for MuggleCast. We are all about no conclusions.
Jamie: When we finally reach conclusions, the universe ends. It’s just like a paradox, you know?
Kevin: It is, right.
Andrew: Hey live feedback! Sorry.
Jamie: Sorry.
Andrew: Finish your joke. No, go, go.
Jamie: No, it’s…
Andrew: No, it’s cool. No, please, it’s cool. I’m over it. Go ahead.
Jamie: But it won’t be funny now, because you’ve built it up!
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Fine. I was going to say if the universe ends, don’t think about meteors or tsunamis or anything like that. It’s just MuggleCast finally reached an agreeable conclusion. You can believe that if you want.
Andrew: I see. I see. Well our live feedback continues – what Jamie, what?
Eric:Something about meteors and…
Jamie: Don’t worry.
Update: Live Feedback
Andrew: In case some of you haven’t noticed we’re having a few connection problems. Our server died out, I think. Just once or twice. But it seems like we’re doing okay now, and our live feedback continues to come in – literally by the minute. It is a very, very, very successful part of the show here.
Kevin: Remember sending in for those, for those who are…
Andrew:Yes, we do appreciate the live feedback. If you have any questions about this topic, why don’t you send them in right now to MuggleCast.com/live, and then we are going to take a break and then we’re going to do some other fun stuff. But Ben, you’re here in the studio with me here this week, and as some of the people may know, if you go to MuggleCast.com and click on the adventures tab, it will get our lovely little audio blog.
Ben: Mhm. Well, yeah, I’ve beat Andrew in practically everything there is.
Andrew: [laughs] We didn’t need to bring up that.
[Ben laughs]
Andrew:I just wanted to let everyone know that we’re sort of…
Ben: Yeah, it’s – it will be updated tonight. I beat Andrew in skeeball, pool, air hockey – you name it, I’ve beaten him in it.
Kevin: I’ll have to play you at pool.
Ben: Andrew is an expert at losing.
Andrew: Kevin, I’ll play you in pool.
Ben: Andrew’s an expert at losing, the poor guy.
Kevin: How big of a table were you playing on? A full size?
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Oh, it was like at least 300 feet.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And this has been idle chat with Kevin Steck.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Ben: It’s a full-size pool table, yes.
Jamie: It’s a bit small isn’t it?
Andrew: Here’s an interesting question, Crystal and Carrie Johnson of Garden City, Kansas. I think I revealed too much.
Ben: Oh!
Andrew: But – what? Go ahead. They live near you?
Ben: These two people, Crystal and Carrie Johnson, I ran into at a debate tournament. I’m pretty sure because they – I was at a national qualifying tournament – e-mail in Crystal if this is you, because this kid came up to me, he said “‘These two girls want to meet you.” And he tried to pull me over there and I was freaked out so I didn’t go over there, but e-mail me if this is you, these people from forensics. So, yeah.
Andrew: And don’t pretend to be them because we have your IP address, so there’s no point.
[Kevin laughs]
Live Feedback – Why No Wizarding University?
Andrew: So anyway, they write, “Do you think that there
is no wizarding University because they have learned everything they need to know in school, or is it because they learn what they need to know or what they need to on the job?”
Kevin: On the job.
Andrew: I’m going to have to say it’s because they learn everything
in school – really? Well I was going to say school because they learn about
Apparating, they learn about defense, they – they learn everything you need at Hogwarts.
Kevin: Well, I think they learn the vast majority, but you have to remember – just look at Dumbledore. He didn’t learn all of that in [laughs] school.
Eric: [laughs] They don’t teach that at school.
Kevin: He learned through – exactly, he learned it through experience. I think that a lot of wizards, a lot of the best wizards in the wizarding world are exactly that. People who have gone beyond their school training and actually made an effort to teach themselves aspects of the wizarding community.
Eric: You know what is really, really interesting Kevin is that Dumbledore was a Transfiguration teacher. When Dippet was Headmaster, Dumbledore taught Transfiguration. When has that come into play? Have we seen Dumbledore transfigure anything? I mean, just talking about Dumbledore and all the things he’s learned since he left school…
Kevin: Yeah, but you have to remember that Snape was a Potions
Master but he really wanted Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Eric: Yeah.
Kevin: So just because he’s in that spot doesn’t mean he’s the best at it.
Eric: Okay.
Ben: Guys, Crystal e-mailed again. This is indeed that Crystal that I met at the Forensics Tournament.
Eric: Oh, stalker!
Ben: So just – yeah.
Andrew: [In a weepy voice] This is such a nice reunion!
Ben: Thank you!
Live Feedback – Population of England
Andrew: Jamie, you’re going to want to pay attention to this: Connor from Oregon just submitted some live feedback. He was looking at Wikipedia, and the population of London is actually 7.5 million, so…
Eric: That’s eight million.
Andrew:You don’t even know your own country, that is pretty embarrassing.
Jamie: It’s half a million out! That’s disgusting.
Kevin: I know.
Eric: Round up, Jamie. Don’t be so hard on yourself.
Live Feedback – Posting on iTunes?
Andrew: Anyone else? Anna M from the UK writes, “Are you recording this? And if so, will you be posting it on iTunes?” Of course we will be posting it on iTunes. That would be silly if we didn’t. We don’t want to exclude the 1.5 zillion of you who aren’t listening live right now.
Eric: [laughs] So you reached your goal of thirty thousand listeners, or one hundred thousand listeners, Andrew?
Andrew: Yeah. Hey!
Live Feedback – Learning Specifics For Future Occupation
Ben: Katie from Marietta, Georgia writes about the discussion we had earlier: “They learn specifics of what they need to know for their job in training. Tonks said that you have to be – you have to have training to become an Auror. Most of the jobs probably require taking some sort of formal training.” So this is also interesting to point out because once again, when they are done at Hogwarts, its not like they jump right into the job field. They have to have training before they actually get their professions. So in a way, that’s probably more like their internship slash college. However you want to look at it.
Kevin: Point. Kevin was right again.
[Jamie laughs]
Ben:For the first time.
Eric:Yeah, for the first.
[Long pause]
Andrew: Well this has been the MuggleCast Awkward Moment of the Show!
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: I’m glad we got past that okay.
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Jamie: I’m sure there’ll be many more.
Andrew: We – oh, well – what’d you say, Jamie?
Jamie: I just said I’m sure that there’ll be many more.
Andrew: No, I beg to differ.
Live Feedback – Live Podcasts Every Wednesday?
Kevin: Oh, here’s a good questions from Nate: “Will you guys be doing live podcasts every Wednesday instead of normal release time?” No. We will be doing normal podcasts, recorded on Wednesday, released on Sunday like normal. But we’ll…
Ben: Wait, hold on, hold on! Hold on Kevin! We’re going to do this more often…
Kevin: Oh, absolutely.
Ben: …since this has been more of a success. So don’t be jumping to conclusions, come on.
Andrew: Yeah no conclusions here, Eric. Kevin, no conclusions, no conclusions.
Kevin: All podcasts live.
Andrew: Hey, hey, how about this idea? How about we do a MuggleCast live every six – every morning at, like, 6:00 AM.
Kevin: Yeah, like a radio station.
Andrew: Instead of turning on a TV – yeah, you turn on MuggleCast, and you get your daily dose of Harry Potter news. [laughs]
Eric: Eric Scull on morning coffee high. Not a good idea.
Jamie: Yeah, the news will be eight hours long and it’ll be time for the next news, Eric, when you finish that one.
Andrew: Yeah.
Live Feedback – Jamie And The Police
Jamie: Can I – can I reply to a piece of feedback from Nate who says: “Busted Andrew, we could hear Jamie before the show, better call the police in Vegas.” I’d just like to point out that was not me. I don’t know who it was, but I’ll be sorting them out very soon. Thank you.
Eric: What? Something’s in Vegas?
Andrew: I’m not sure what they are talking about, but…
Jamie: I can’t remember it. Can you, Andrew?
Live Feedback – Opening The Server
Andrew: It lies. I honestly can’t remember. [laughs] Anyway we are actually opening the server up right now trying to see how many people we can fit in here, because this is like a test. We consider you all a bunch of test monkeys, and we are going to feed you all bananas by providing our – what is this?
Eric: Oh, don’t say that, they’ll want it now.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Genetically engineered bananas.
Andrew: [Laughs] Okay! Oh…
Eric: You will never be hungry for a banana again.
Andrew: Right. Anyway, anyone else got any live feedback before we take a break? Oh, by the way, if you haven’t noticed by now this is going to be sort of a different show. It’s a little bit different from our normal episode, because this is the last one before our 50th and our last one before the live podcast, and we’ve got a ton of stuff going on, so we hope it’s still the same amount of quality.
Live Feedback – Jamie’s British Joke of the Day
Ben: We’ve got an important piece of live feedback here. Jack from “none available” would like to know: [in a British accent] “Will Jamie be giving his joke of the day?” Jamie, Jamie, will you be giving your joke of the day today, Jamie?
Jamie: I – now you see, I was planning on making an announcement about that, a bad announcement. So yes, I will definitely be giving a joke, and I won’t be trying to find one on Google by typing in funny plus jokes plus very funny…
[Ben laughs]
Jamie: …and then reading it out loud pretending I’ve made it up myself. So, yes, sorry. Did I just say that out loud?
Eric: But the real question is Jamie, will you be telling a joke to start off Lumos everyday? When registration opens will you be there with your paper to tell your joke?
Jamie: [Long pause] Yes, Eric. Shouldn’t have said that, shouldn’t have said that.
Kevin: Oh, sorry.
Jamie: Just before the break, I have a question for everyone, and send in your live feedback. I don’t remember who sent it in, so sorry, but you said that “Can the Room of Requirement interfere with the prophecy?” As in can there be, sort of contradictions in terms? I don’t know how this would work, but it just occurred to me that it was pretty interesting subject. So send in your ideas, thank you.
Eric: And I have one live feedback result here from – this one
comes from Distorted Melody from the MuggleCast Fan Chat on AIM. She says – or, they say, “Who is drinking the Slurpee?”
Andrew: No one. [Laughs] That’s the call quality.
Eric: That was – yeah.
Ben: No Slurpees here. So folks, that does it for us until after
the break. Remember, if you happen to – it’ll only be five to ten minutes. But remember, if you happen to disconnect, just keep trying to reconnect. That’s the only way you are going to get back in. So we hope you come back in.
Andrew: [Show music in the background] Can you guys all here the music? We have music now!
Jamie: Nice music.
Eric: That’s like the coolest music ever.
Back To The Show
Ben: Welcome back everybody!
Eric: Yay!
Ben: I’m still Ben Schoen. [Laughs]
Andrew: I’m still Andrew Sims, I hope.
Kevin: And I think I’m still Kevin Steck.
Ben: [In a British accent] Who’s all here? Go on, go on now!
Eric: I was Eric Scull.
Kevin: Did we lose the Brit?
Jamie: No. I think I’ve aged somewhat in that five minutes, though.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Okay. Well, welcome back everyone to the show. Of course, we are still live, and if you lose the connection it is important to remember to just try to reconnect. Because otherwise…
Ben: You’re not getting back in.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, and we have that connection limited to only a certain amount of people so you do not crash our poor little server. One live feedback came in earlier requesting that we have more music on the show here, so I figured I’d turn a little music on here. [Spice Girls starts playing] How’s this? This good?
[MuggleCasters sing along with the song]: So tell me what you want, what you really really want, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ha. If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends, Make it last forever friendship never ends, If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give, Taking is too easy, but that’s the way it is.
Andrew: Oh wait, wait, wait, we’ve got to get to the verse at least. A one, two, three… [sings wrong lyrics, then laughs] Well, I screwed that up. Okay. Gone away – oh, oops, hello. [Music stops playing] We’re back, we’re back.
Jamie: Let’s try and criticize that song as much as we can.
Andrew: Oh come on, we played it on the show the other day. You probably wouldn’t notice, so…
Ben: [talking in a girly voice to Andrew’s sister in the background] It’s Becca!
Jamie: [laughs] You did?
How Much Do We Talk?
Andrew: Yes. We are going to move on now to a little e-mail we got from Devin, 16, of Rose Valley, Pennsylvania. She writes about how much we talk.
Ben: Devin is a guy’s name.
Andrew: Or he. No, I’m pretty sure. No, it’s also a girl’s name.
Ben: No, Devin is not a girl’s name.
Andrew: Ummm.
Ben: E-mail in right now. If Devin is a girl’s name, e-mail in and let us know.
Andrew: No don’t, because we’re going to get a million feedback. Anyway, she calculated the amount of words per hour that we all talk.
Kevin: Wow!
Andrew: Does anyone want to guess who came in first place with the most words per hour?
Becca: [In background] I do!
Andrew: Not you, Ben, because you see it.
Jamie: Eric with 900,000 words an hour.
Eric: Wait, Jamie was..
Andrew: How much?
Jamie: 900,000, am I close?
Eric: Wait, here’s live feedback…
Andrew: 900,000? You’re a little out of the ballpark.
Jamie: Oh no.
Eric: Guys this is good. From Mwuahaha, location California, they say, “Evil monkeys will eat you if the show does not get on the air.” So, that’s good that we’ve taken care of that.
Jamie: Yes.
Eric: Oh well.
Andrew: Alina says Devin is so a girl’s name, but then Danielle says Devin is a guy’s name. So, I think we’re split. I think it’s actually Devin spelt D – E – V – I – N.
Ben: Like that means anything.
Eric: This will be the next one. Okay.
Andrew: That means it’s a girl. D – E – V – O – N is a guy. [laughs] Anyway, anyway.
Eric: Okay, Ben, that’s not..
Andrew: Eric came in first place with 3,338 words per hour.
Ben: Congratulations, Eric.
Andrew: Yeah, round of applause for Eric.
Ben: What an achievement for Eric Scull!
Eric: Jamie has 3,337 at least. I mean, Jamie and I are neck in neck.
Ben: No, Jamie was 2,681.
Jamie: Thank you, Eric.
Ben: Which is a considerable 700 words – 700 words per hour – lower than you.
Eric: That was…
Ben: 700!
Eric: Ben! Nate from Maine says, “Will we be having the privilege to hear a Live Give Me A Butterbeer?” Will you ask the fans to give you a butterbeer on this live show, Ben?
Andrew: He’d answer, but he doesn’t want to bring his word per hour count up.
Ben: [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: [laughs] But I – who wants…
Eric: So wait, you can’t compare to my 3,300-some words if you don’t want to reach that goal.
Andrew: Who wants to guess who’s third? Third place.
Eric: Time me, I dare you, time me.
Jamie: Kevin.
Andrew: Who, Jamie? You’re a little too loud.
Jamie: Kevin, sorry. Kevin.
Andrew: No actually, I’m in third place with 2,473 words; then comes Ben with 2,191, Kevin in fifth with…
Jamie: No.
Andrew: What?
Kevin: So this is over all the episodes?
Andrew: Yes. Obviously, it’s not this episode.
[Andrew, Ben, and Kevin laugh]
Kevin: Well, you never know, some people can…
Jamie: I’m not joining in laughing because I actually thought it was this episode.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Oh really?
Andrew: Kevin has 1,419, Laura was 1,354, and Micah comes in at a solemn, strong, and bold 561 words per hour.
[Andrew, Ben, and Jamie laugh]
Ben: Micah’s a soldier. He is a soldier.
Andrew: I wish we all spoke as much as he did.
Live Feedback – Spice Girls
Jamie: Can I just answer one quick piece of live feedback? Alice from Lancaster County in PA says, “I just want to know, who has that Spice Girls song on file?” Well Alice, I think that might just be Andrew.
Andrew: I’m proud to say that that is indeed me. [laughs]
Ben: Okay, get this. Yesterday we were on the way home from the ocean…
Andrew: Oh god. From Ocean City, okay, it’s not from the ocean. We weren’t on…
Ben: Yeah. Guess what? Andrew busts out his iPod and starts playing the Spice Girls… [laughs] And I’m like, “What are you doing?”
Andrew: But it’s important to note that this came after the U2 and everything. My sister and her friend were in the back of the car and I thought it might be a nice song. So then instead Ben decides to switch on some hick music.
Ben: Mhm.
Andrew: And then none of us were amused.
[Jamie laughs]
Ben: [in hick voice] Takes the tractor another round.
Andrew: So anyway, thank you Devin for sending in that information, and she says she can provide us with more figures which I’m sure we would all love to see. What?
Eric: Ryan R from Germany writes: “Dear MuggleCast, www.babynames.com – and Devin means writer of poetry. It’s Celtic and Gaelic, and it is unisex.” So thank you Ryan R from Germany.
Jamie: There we go.
Submit Gimme A Butterbeer For Later Use In The Show
Ben: Okay, thank you for settling that. It’s time to discuss what’s going on with Gimme A Butterbeer. I made a sort of tactical error when I first started this segment because I should have done it every other week. Because at first I thought, “Oh, I’ll never run out of ideas.” But now, folks, I’m out of ideas. So, this week Gimme A Butterbeer…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Literally, give him one, give him one.
Ben: [in high-pitched voice] …idea, please. [laughs]
Kevin: [laughs] Idea.
Ben: So right now send in- send in something, okay? Send in something, please.
[Kevin laughs]
Ben: Oh by the way, Alina from Pennsylvania writes, “Wawawa chocolate shake.” Andrew and I each had a chocolate shake from WaWa a few nights ago, so…
Andrew: Oh yeah, that’s right.
Jamie: Possibly the most gripping piece of live feedback we’ve had so far.
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Kevin: [laughs] Yeah.
Ben: So go ahead, send me your Gimme A Butterbeer ideas right now. Maybe we’ll work something up for the end of the show.
[Jamie laughs]
Live Calls
Andrew: Now it is time to move on to the part of the show where you guys can call in and ask your questions. I guess we should have brought this up at the beginning of the show now that I think of it so people had time to…
Ben: Think of questions.
Andrew: …ask some questions. If you’ve got a question that you would like us to answer, whether it’s a question about Harry Potter, a question about the show, a question about maybe the live podcast, whatever you want, call in right now: 1-218-20-MAGIC. Yes, Eric?
Eric: You know who’s going call in? It’s going to be Aaron from Pleasanton, California who keeps sending in his Top 10 list. He sent it in so many times, Jamie.
Andrew: Also, if you’re in the United Kingdom, you can dial 020-8144-0677, in Australia 02-8003-5668. And then you can also Skype the name MuggleCast. Lets take a call from Bridget.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: Bridget, are you there?
Bridget: Yes.
Ben: Hello.
Eric: Oh, hello.
Andrew: Bridget, I’m not going lie, I like your Skype icon. [laughs]
Ben: [doing his Andrew impression] Yeah! All right!
Bridget: Oh wow, your sound needs to be fixed.
Andrew: [laughs] What’s that?
Jamie: Well considering…
Bridget: You know that we can’t hear you?
Andrew: I fixed it. We’re okay now.
Jamie: You can’t hear Andrew? That’s a godsend, why are you complaining? [laughs]
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] I fixed it. Wait, you can’t hear me or you can’t hear the rest of the people? You should be able to hear everyone now. I don’t know that must have sounded…
Kevin: Can everyone hear the call?
Bridget: Okay, now I can hear myself and that’s really weird.
Andrew: Let’s take another call. Erica, are you there?
Erica: Yeah. Hello?
Andrew: Hi, Erica!
Eric: Hello.
Ben: Abercrombie. Abercrombie & Fitch.
Andrew: Don’t give out her Skype name.
Erica: Hello? Hello?
Andrew: Can you hear us? Whoa, oh, hello.
Kevin: Hi.
Erica: Yeah. Hi. Hello. Pardon? Yeah, I’m here.
Eric: I’m sorry.
Andrew: Where do you live? Where are you from?
Erica: Can you hear me?
Andrew: Yes.
Jamie: Yes.
Erica: Hi, I’m from Melbourne, Australia.
Jamie: You do have a very nice accent.
Erica: I can’t hear you, it’s going really slow.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Perhaps because it has to cross a gigantic ocean. [laughs]
[Everyone laughs]
Kimberly: The Building Plan
Andrew: Let’s invite Kimberly. Kimberly? Kimberly, are you there?
Kimberly: Hello?
Jamie: Hello.
Andrew: Do we have to- are you across a gigantic ocean?
Kimberly: Hello?
Ben: Bye Ellie, bye Ellie. [laughs]
Andrew: Hi. [laughs]
Kimberly: [laughs] Hi.
Jamie:Hi. Oh, you’re here.
Andrew: Can you hear me now?
Kimberly: Can you hear it? I can hear you.
Andrew: Yes, yes. We’re good now. Okay, cool. What’s going on? Thanks for calling in. You’ve been calling a while haven’t you? Sorry Jamie, go ahead.
Jamie: So..
Kimberly: It…
Jamie: Go on.
Kimberly: I just – it just started working, so I haven’t heard the show. I just got connected through QuickTime, so…
Andrew: Oh okay.
Kimberly: How’s it going?
Andrew: It’s going pretty well. This is a test.
Jamie: It’s interesting.
Kimberly: I was wondering – I don’t know if you’ve got, if you guys have talked about in Order of the Phoenix when Harry sees a building plan? You know what I’m talking about?
Jamie: Oh, yeah. What? Bill’s building plan?
Kimberly: Yeah.
Eric: I guess it was of the Department of Ministries – Mysteries. Sorry.
Kimberly: Oh, it was?
Eric: I think so.
Kimberly: Cool.
Eric: What do you guys – do you guys think? I think they’re mapping that – wait, maybe not, because did we ever find out what that weapon was? In – didn’t Voldemort want a weapon, or that was the assumption?
Ben: Love that Harry has.
Jamie: Not for Voldemort’s use.
Kimberly: I don’t know, it could have been the prophecy. I thought it could have been.
Eric: Because at Grimmauld Place, I think it was either Fred or George or somebody stumbled in and they determined that Voldemort was looking for a weapon, and there were blueprints that I guess were either Department of Mysteries or somewhere else that the Order had to go to do something. I don’t know. That’s interesting, good question.
Kimberly: Well, thanks. Good luck with the rest of the show!
Eric: Wait, don’t leave!
Ben: Eric’s got to answer it.
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Kimberly: Oh, okay.
Eric: Are you guys going to discuss this about the building plans or whatever?
Andrew: See, to be honest, I don’t remember that because I guess that was a little small tidbit in the book. What do you think, Ben?
Kimberly: I think it’s on page 80 or something.
Ben: I don’t know. [laughs]
Eric: Page 80-something? Fairly early in the books, I guess.
Jamie: Can I give a bit of feedback?
Andrew: Yes.
Jamie: Brian e-mails in with a rather sarcastic tone…
Andrew: Uh oh.
Jamie: …saying, ” The weapon was the prophecy. Duh.”
[Kimberly laughs]
Ben: Ooh.
Kimberly: Oh god!
Eric: Oh, come on.
Jamie: I think he brings up a fair point. Was it the prophecy? But is it really a weapon, or is it just a piece of information?
Eric: Oh wait. Well yeah, it is a weapon. It’s the same thing, because it’s the knowledge of how to destroy Harry.
Kevin: Exactly.
Eric: Thank you Alina, Alina from Pennsylvania. Okay, so wait, does the whole fan base agree that we are correct in assuming that the blueprints were of the Department of Mysteries?
Jamie: Well, we don’t know, do we?
Kevin: Yeah, but it would be fitting if you’re trying to find a prophecy which is in a building that you don’t know if you got a blueprint.
Eric: Or the Hall of Prophecy, right. You know, it’s interesting they have blueprints of the Department of Mysteries. Perhaps Harry can retrieve those without actually having to go into the Ministry?
Kevin: Yeah, but you have to remember they also have the map that Fred and George used, so…
Jamie: To add to that previous thing about it being the prophecy, Alina writes in and says, “The weapon was the knowledge of how to destroy Harry.”
Eric: I just said that.
[Kevin and Andrew laugh]
Jamie: Did you really?
Kevin: Yeah.
Ben: Yes.
Jamie: Oh, I knew that.
Kevin: [laughs] Quote, unquote.
Jamie: I was just testing everyone. [laughs] Well done, you all passed with flying colors.
Andrew: Thank you, Ellie, for calling in.
Kimberly: Yeah sure, no problem.
Ben: Next caller.
Kevin: Yeah, thank you.
Kimberly: Bye.
Andrew: See ya.
Kevin: Bye.
Jamie: Bye.
Crystal and Keeri: Favorite Houses
Andrew: Oh, she hung up for me. Thank you for hanging up for me. Okay, we’re going to get another caller in here now. Caller?
Ben: John?
Andrew: [laughs] Shut up! You blew it, you totally blew it!
Ben: [laughs] I didn’t blow anything.
Andrew: Oh, that’s his fault. He held it, not me.
Jamie: What is this?
Andrew: How about Nathan Sutherberg? Oh nope, missed him too. How about a fresh one? How about Chris? Hello, Chris!
Crystal: Hey guys. Yeah? Hey.
Andrew: Hey, what’s up?
Crystal: It’s Crystal from earlier. [laughs]
Kevin: [laughs] Oh.
Andrew: The girl from earlier.
Crystal:It’s Crystal, hey guys.
Ben: Is this the girl from Garden City?
Crystal:Yep, that’s me.
Ben: So you’ve seen me before. You’ve been like a hundred feet away from me before, haven’t you?
[Andrew laughs]
Crystal:Whoa, how do I mute this?
Andrew: Just turn down your computer volume.
Eric: Just leave.
Kevin: Just hit pause.
Eric: Just leave.
Ben: You were like 30 feet away from me once.
Crystal: Okay, can you guys hear me?
Eric: Yeah, give your undivided attention to us.
Crystal: [laughs] All right, I was wondering – okay, what are your favorite houses?
Eric: Oooh.
Jamie: Mine! I love mine.
Andrew: We get this question..
Ben: [in high-pitched voice] I’m a Gryffindor.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: We don’t know enough.
Crystal: Have you heard this question before? Sorry.
Eric: We don’t know enough.
Andrew: It’s all right. We get it a lot, but I guess it’s just your personal opinion. It’s not like any of us put in a lot of deep thought into it, at least I don’t. Maybe Eric does, but…
Ben: My favorite house is Andrew’s house.
[Andrew, Kevin, and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Awww.
Eric: My favorite house is The Burrow.
Crystal: Yeah. I’m a Puff, so I was just wondering.
Andrew: Okay we’re talking about..
Ben: Hogwarts houses.
Kevin: Yeah, Hogwarts houses.
Ben: You’re a Hufflepuff? Are you kidding me?
Crystal: Yeah I am, I’m a loyal Puff. [laughs]
Jamie: You..
Andrew: [laughs] You’re a loyal Puff.
Ben: Okay, what year are you in high school right now?
Crystal: Actually, I’m a – I’m just in college, now.
Eric: Woot!
Ben: Are you assistant coach or something for the Garden City High School?
Crystal: No, I was with my friend.
[Eric laughs]
Ben: Oh, you were, okay. Do you know Caleb, Caleb Jessie?
Kevin: That’s good.
Crystal: Who?
Ben: Caleb Jessie.
Crystal: Yes! [laughs]
Andrew: Okay. Good thing we’re giving everyone’s names out now.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: All right, thanks for the call, Crystal.
[Crystal laughs]
Jamie: I’m sure you talk to MuggleNet about all your friends, but, you know…
Crystal: Okay, hold on, my sister would like to say hi. She’s obsessing. Hold on.
Andrew: Oh, whoa now.
Jamie: Ben, she dusts for DNA, just like you.
Keeri: Hey.
Kevin: Hello.
Andrew: Hey.
Keeri: Hey, this is Keeri. You guys pronounced it wrong. It’s “Key-ree”.
Kevin: Keeri?
Andrew: Oh.
Keeri: Keeri, yeah.
Kevin: Could you spell it?
Keeri: Yeah. Keeri and Crystal. K-E-E-R-I.
Eric: Oh, how would you mispronounce that, Ben?
Keeri: All right, talk to you guys later. Bye!
Kevin: Yeah, bye.
Andrew: All right, bye.
John Noe?
Andrew: One important note to everyone – make sure that you keep your thing down – keep your mic low. All right, let’s try to call someone else in here. Hello caller, you’re live on MuggleCast Live, the number one Harry Potter podcast on live [laughs] thank you for calling!
[Andrew laughs]
John: Oh my god, did I get in?
Jamie: No, you just…
Eric: You so did not.
Kevin:You didn’t make it, I’m sorry.
Jamie: I’m sorry.
John: Oh no!
Andrew: Contain your eagerness, but try to remain calm.
Jamie: Thank you for calling.
Andrew: How are you doing, caller?
John: How’s it going? How are you guys?
Eric: Oh my god, is this John Noe?
Andrew: We’re fine, how are you?
Eric: Is this John Noe?
John: What? Who? John what? No.
Andrew: Right, well we’re just under the assumption because – well, right, but we’re just under the assumption because it says in your Skype name ‘John Noe’.
John: Oh, no, I’m just a John Noe fan, is all.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Eric: It sounds like John Noe. It smells like John Noe.
John: Oh! It must smell pretty darn good.
Eric: Yes it does.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: I’m strangely intrigued.
Eric: It smells like crab cakes. Hmmm.
John: So how’s this going, is it going good? How long have you been doing this for?
Andrew: Minus the voice calls, I think it’s going okay.
John: That’s cool.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Have you been listening?
John: I was trying to get it to work, and I’m – I don’t know. Does it work good with Firefox? Because I couldn’t get it to listen.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re limiting how many people can connect, though, so chances are you probably…
Eric: Hey, wait…
John: Oh, you must be looking for my connection. I’m blocking it on purpose.
Andrew: We got your IP.
Eric: Guys, is there enough room for John on this?
Andrew: Clearly there is, because he’s talking to us right now.
Eric: I mean for John and everybody else.
Andrew: Oh, no, no, we only have one extra spot. We’re getting lots of calls. So why don’t we say goodbye to John?
John: Oh no, not so fast!
Eric: John, we’ll see you in Vegas!
Kevin: Yeah, in Vegas.
Ben: John…
John: No, I’m not going, I had to cancel my ticket.
Eric: You’re not going to Vegas?
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Ben: Oh, yeah.
John: No!
Ben: He is too. He’s going.
John: I’m going to be in Atlanta.
Eric: No! No, you’re not.
Jamie: He’s not.
Andrew: We forgot to announce that, speaking of.
Ben: He’s joking!
Eric: Noe no, Noe no!
Ben: John, John.
John: What? What?
Eric: No Noe, you’ve got to be at Vegas.
John: How come I don’t see Ben’s name on here? How’s he talking to us? I’m so confused.
Ben: Because I’m at Andrew’s house.
Kevin:He’s at the Andrew studio.
John: Oh that’s right, you’re playing on your play date.
Andrew: Yeah. His mom dropped him off in their mini van.
[John laughs]
Ben: Yeah. Hey, John, John.
John: What?
Ben: Who’s your favorite MuggleCaster?
John: Oh, that’s a tough call. I’m a huge Jamie fan.
Jamie: Awww.
John: And Micah. Is Micah in here?
Andrew: No.
Kevin: No, Micah’s not here.
John: Oh, crap.
Eric: He did news this episode, though.
John: He already did his news?
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
John: That’s great.
Ben: I did it for him.
John: I’m excited for that part.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Thanks…
John: Well, I won’t let your listeners wait any longer to talk to you guys.
Andrew: All right.
Kevin: Okay.
John: I will take my leave.
Eric: Thank you, John!
Andrew: See you in Vegas.
John: See you, boys.
Eric: Okay, bye.
Jamie: Bye, John.
Eric: See, you know what’s funny?
Andrew: That was nice.
Eric: You know what’s funny?
Andrew: What?
Eric: I didn’t even look at Skype, and I said, “This guy sounds like John Noe,” and then I asked him, and then I looked, and it was John Noe.
Andrew: Eric, you’re a voice expert.
Jamie: To be frank, I thought it was John Noe. I mean, it’s like he sounded like him, and it was. You know, because it was.
[Eric and Kevin laugh]
Aaron: Destroying Horcruxes
Andrew: One more caller. I like this guy’s Skype icon. Aaron, are you there?
Aaron: Whoa! Holy crap.
Andrew: I’ll take that as a yes. [laughs]
Jamie: Holy crap is – we have children here, you know!
Aaron: Oh, oh, we do?
Jamie: I don’t know, do we?
Aaron: Yeah, I think so.
Andrew: What’s going on, Aaron? Welcome to MuggleCast 49. Title: [laughs] The Disaster Call In Show.
Aaron: But my iTunes is like – well, okay.
Kevin: Oh, pause the iTunes. It will make it a lot better.
Aaron: Yay, I paused it.
Kevin:That’s it!
Ben: [imitating Kevin] Kevin Steck!
Andrew: Hey, so what’s on your mind? What are you calling for?
Aaron: Well, the Horcruxes. I just wanted to know…
Kevin: What about them?
Aaron: …how you think they are destroyed, because we don’t really know how.
Ben: [in a Voldemort voice] Avada Kedavra.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie:Flush them down the toilet. And hope you never see them.
Kevin: No, I mean, that’s a good question. Are they – I’m assuming you’re saying are they indestructible unless you use a certain method, or…
Aaron: Yeah. Probably. We don’t know how the ring was destroyed.
Kevin: I would assume there was some sort of magic to sort of vanquish the piece of the soul that’s within the item. You have to remember that after – you’re not really destroying the item, because obviously the ring was still together and stuff like that. So I would guess there was a certain method to remove it.
Eric: Thank god.
Aaron: Okay.
Andrew: Eric, what do you think? How do you destroy Horcruxes?
Eric: In the cave, people are still wondering what that green liquid actually did. People are like, well, did it make Dumbledore relive his worst memory? Did it make Dumbledore feel pain? He was all like, “Oh, it’s my fault,” things like that. I’m going to actually quote the book here. I just – hold on, I need to find the exact pages. But when Dumbledore drinks the green liquid now, remember when they first go into the cave and they see it. It’s described – the green fluid and the stone basin, it’s actually described as being reminiscent of the Pensieve. Just one word, something like that. There’s, “No more, please no more.” These are the things that Dumbledore cries out. “I want to die, I want to die, make it stop, make it stop, I want to die. Kill me,” also. “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault, please make it stop, I know I did wrong. Oh please, make it stop, and I’ll never, never, never again…” These are the kind of things Dumbledore screams out. Now actually, I was thinking about this, and I was thinking, now what would possibly make Dumbledore say, “It’s all my fault, please make it stop, I know I did wrong?” It actually sounds like he’s being punished. When he’s reading this, this is an instance when he’s being – in fact it reminded me, and I don’t think anyone’s ever come to me with this particular question, but it makes it seem like Dumbledore is actually, after drinking the green liquid, reliving what happened to the children in that cave, that Tom Riddle tortured. It sounds like a little girl, that Riddle was performing perhaps a Cruciatus Curse on, would be saying, “It’s all my fault, I know I did wrong, I’ll never, never again do wrong…”
Andrew: He is a little girl…
Eric: “Please, please! Not that!”
Andrew: …with long white hair!
Eric: “I’ll do anything, I’ll do anything! Please, no more, stop!”
Jamie: Eric, you’re getting way too into this.
Eric: Okay, I’m sorry.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie:That’s okay.
Eric: But listen. So it sounds like Dumbledore is actually reliving the memory of what happened in the cave, and that makes sense. Does that mean that Voldemort’s Horcruxes, in order to destroy them, you have to relive that particular moment in his life? Or – basically, the question is, is this making him relive the cave moment? Because – is that the function of the green goo? Because nobody knows. But it really seems like it. I made that connection, and I was thinking, well maybe in order to destroy Horcruxes – maybe in order to destroy the Horcruxes, you have to somehow weave your way in through Voldemort’s past. Basically I’m just wondering, if this one Horcrux made him relive the moment in order to get at the Horcrux, I’m wondering if you actually have to seriously involve yourself in Voldemort’s life or brain or mind in order to destroy them all; which means basically Harry is going to have to prepare himself for going into Voldemort’s life a little less comfortable than he would if he were just viewing it in third person through the Pensieve. And so maybe, in answer to your question, in order to destroy a Horcrux, you don’t just have to know insane magic, maybe you also have to be prepared to relive some of Voldemort’s happiest memories and in a more than effective way.
Jamie:Perhaps.
Andrew: Perhaps. What do you think of that, Aaron.
Aaron: But you’re flawed.
[Andrew laughs]
Aaron: After they get the Horcrux, he says one person couldn’t do it alone. So then Dumbledore did the ring alone, supposedly. I guess.
Eric: Well, that doesn’t mean it’s a flaw. That means this particular Horcrux was constructed in such a way – it doesn’t mean that Dumbledore didn’t have to face something of Voldemort’s past when destroying the ring or something, because if you remember, Dumbledore knew about – mysteriously about the ring. He knew how Tom took Marvolo’s wand and he knew all that stuff that he probably shouldn’t have. He knew that Tom took Marvolo’s wand, went and killed his family, and then planted that memory into Marvolo’s mind saying he’d done it, so maybe he learned that through his battles destroying the ring.
Aaron: Hmmm.
Ben: Hey, Aaron, how old are you?
Aaron: I’m twelve.
Ben: And, oh, dude.
Eric: Hold on. So Aaron is twelve…
Ben: Eric, you got your butt kicked by a twelve year old!
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Hold on, so Aaron is twelve, and he tells me that my theory, my spiel that I called in from Italy on this show, is flawed. Aaron, I’ve got to tell you, you’ve got guts. Aaron, do you work out?
[Everyone laughs]
Aaron: Uhhh…
Jamie:Do you see it…
Andrew: Eric has not touched weights in years.
Eric: I am just – well actually, I took Strength and Conditioning this year, but I didn’t before that.
Andrew: But you failed miserably. What grade did you get?
Eric: Yeah, I did. So – what grade? I got – I think I benched…
Jamie: Sorry…
Eric: …bench max is, like, 170…
Jamie: Okay…
Andrew: Actually, I’m starting to think we don’t care.
Jamie: Isn’t that kind of flawed, because if you’re massive and extremely strong…
Eric: Oh! Well, now Jamie’s flawed.
Jamie: No, no! If you’re huge and extremely strong and you can bench a million tons, then surely you’re going to get an A, whereas if your scrawny and weak…
Eric: Oh, no, how it was run – this is completely off topic and it’s Aaron’s fault because he’s got guts…
[Andrew laughs]
Aaron: Awww.
Eric: Because he’s got guts. But they take your max, and then you have to start practicing with seventy percent of your max, of whatever you can – the most you can possibly do, you take that weight by – you take seventy percent of that weight, and that’s what you practice with. You do twelve. You do twelve reps.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: That sounds extremely academic.
Eric: It isn’t academic, but you just build on what you can do. So it is actually not unfair, because you just start with what you could absolutely do, and then you actually improve. It’s very nice. It’s not, it’s not like, “Everybody, today we’re going to be doing 300 pounds.” Because…
Andrew: Well, alright. So…
Eric: Anyway, Aaron, do you have any more ideas about this whole Horcrux thing that you’d like to share here?
Aaron: Nope, that was pretty much it. Yeah!
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: In that case, thank you Aaron for calling in.
Aaron: Yup, no problem!
Kevin: Thank you.
Rashmi: Picking The Winner And MuggleCast Fan Chat
Andrew: Let’s take one more call, and they will also decide who wins that fabulous ticket to Jo Rowling, Stephen King and John Irving in New York City on the second night.
Eric: Stephen Fry…
Andrew: Who should we pick… Rashmi, are you there?
Rashmi: Hey.
Kevin: Hello.
Andrew: Hi.
Rashmi: Hi.
Andrew: Thanks for coming to the show, where you from?
Jamie: Hello.
Rashmi: I’m from the Caribbean.
Kevin: Nice.
Andrew: I’d recommend you turn your stream down so we don’t hear it in the background.
Rashmi: Yeah, I just did.
Andrew: It’s kind of… okay, thanks.
Eric: Is it…
Andrew: You got a question for us?
Rashmi: Actually no, I don’t have a question, but I just wanted to say thank you because you’ve made the MuggleCast Fan Chat more lively than it has been in a very long time.
[Andrew laughs]
Rashmi: We have over thirty people in there right now.
Andrew: That’s good.
Rashmi: Oh yeah, and Ben?
Ben: Yeah? What’s up?
Rashmi: Ben, Lisa says hi.
Ben: Hi Lisa. I love you.
Andrew: [laughs] That’s right. Because you guys are talking over IM, too.
Rashmi: And she also says that you need to marry Hannah.
Andrew: Awww. Well, we’ve already had one marriage proposal too many on the show today.
Ben: I’m already marrying Andrew’s sister, so I don’t know if I can do that.
Andrew: Okay, and there’s the Andrew’s sister joke for the day.
[Ben laughs]
Eric: Wait, so Rashmi…
Andrew: Rashmi…
Rashmi: Mhm?
Eric: So, it is [pronounces it car-RIB-be-an] Caribbean, then?
Andrew: So what’d you…? [laughs]
Rashmi: Sorry?
Eric: It is Pirates of the Caribbean?
Rashmi: Yes, it is.
Eric: Pirates of the Caribbean?
Rashmi: Yes, it is.
Eric: Ahhh. Okay, I win about $30. Pay up, Andrew.
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: For those of you who don’t know, the MuggleCast Fan Chat is the little chat that goes on, on AIM pretty much 24/7, and fans of the show go in to talk to one another about the show and…
Jamie:How cool Andrew is.
Andrew: This is the first live show, this is a great – yeah, occasionally. I mean, they have to moderate that part because it occurs so often.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: But Rashmi, can you please pick a number between 1 and 136?
Rashmi: 131.
Eric: That’s not fair.
Andrew: Is that your final answer?
Eric: That’s not really fair to the people who submitted it more than last minute.
Andrew: Hold on.
Eric: I think it should be somebody who submitted it before.
Andrew: That wasn’t last minute. That wasn’t last minute at all.
Kevin:No, it’s not working that way.
Andrew: Hold on, I’m getting it up here… Ah, Gmail. The winner of the JK Rowling Live in New York City: Night 2, who has to also pick up the ticket at the podcast on August 2nd or else you cannot go, is…Ben?
Ben: Nicole from Wayne, Pennsylvania! So congratulations, Nicole! Be there in New York City, or else…
Jamie: When you said that, it sounded like you meant the winner of the ticket is Ben, and I thought…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: And I thought, wow, that’s crap.
Andrew: Ben’s always a winner in my book.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Well, I will be – we’ll e-mail Nicole and let her know just in case she’s not listening anymore.
Eric: Hey wait, guys! Nicole – Nicole is in the MuggleCast Fan Chat.
Andrew: I know there have been a few connection problems throughout the night.
Rashmi: Yeah, she is.
Andrew: Oh, is she? Tell her to Skype AndrewMN, the username.
Eric: Hang on, hang on. Where’s – I got to find Nicole. She’s in, she’s in the…who…damn it! Who’s Nicole? Everyone’s like, “Congrats, Nicole!” and then nobody is saying who Nicole is.
Rashmi: Nicole is surfingcoolchick12.
Andrew: Ooh!
Eric: Oh, wait. You can’t do that, but thank you. Thank you, Rashmi. Surfing cool…okay, I’m going to IM her. So, wait, that’s amazing. So she’s actually in the – she’s an active listener and stuff.
Andrew: Hopefully she’ll call in. Thank you. Is her call Icole-Nay? Is her name Icole-Nay?
Ben: Yeah, try it. That’s what I said.
Rashmi: No, Nicole.
Jamie: Complete breech of the data descriptions act – sorry, data protection act.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Complete breech of anything Jamie wouldn’t do.
Andrew: Alright. Thank you, Rashmi, for calling. We’ll get her in here.
Rashmi: Okay, thank you.
Kevin: Yeah, thank you.
Andrew: Thank you, bye bye.
Eric: See ya!
Contest Winner: Nicole
Andrew: Our live feedback continues to pour in. I’d like to thank Peter for e-mailing a good forty times with the same statement, “New nickname for Micah: The Micahphone.” I’m pretty sure we brought that up on last week’s show.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: By the way, it’s Icole-Nay, Andrew.
Andrew: Nicole-Nay?
Kevin: Icole-Nay.
Jamie: If you could step…
Andrew: Icole-Nay? All right. We’ll call it up a million times.
Eric: Like E. coli, only with a hyphen and N-A-Y.
Andrew: Nicole, are you there?
Nicole: Hello?
Andrew: Nicole?
Eric: Nicole!
Andrew: Hi.
Nicole: Hi!
Kevin: Hello.
Eric: Congratulations! Rashmi just won you…
Nicole: Thank you! I know!
Eric: …a ticket.
Nicole: I know.
Kevin: You’re going to be in New York?
Nicole: It’s so amazing! Yeah, I am. Actually, I have a really cool story to tell you.
Andrew: Oh, then tell us. But before you do it, can you back away from your mic a little bit?
Nicole: Yeah, sure.
Andrew: Thanks.
Eric: Go about ten feet back.
Nicole: [laughs] Okay.
Andrew: No, no, no. Go ahead.
Nicole: We were on here last time for the MuggleCast Live. It failed, and so me and three other people – Derek, London, and Rhiannon; Rhiannon’s actually a transcriber for you guys – we made our own podcast…
Andrew: Oooh.
Nicole: …and it’s on http://clik.to/maraudersmap. And also, I won the ticket and I’m giving it to Rhiannon, who is our transcriber, because I’m already going to the podcast.
Eric: Awww!
Andrew: Awww!
Kevin:Awww! That’s very nice of you.
Andrew: That’s well used.
Nicole: And also – Andrew, I was at the Phillies game, but I didn’t see you.
Andrew: Oh, were you the girl who e-mailed me?
Nicole: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, I was looking for you, only I didn’t know what you looked like, so it was kind of hard to pick you out.
Nicole: Yeah, it was kind of hard. [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Thanks.
Nicole: But yeah, just so you know. But thank you so much for picking me…and thank you, Rashmi, too.
Andrew: No, thank Rashmi, yeah.
Eric: Thank Rashmi.
Andrew: Yeah, so…
Nicole: And also, can I ask a question, or are you guys done with that yet?
Andrew: Sure, why not?
Eric: No, we’re not.
Nicole: Making Horcruxes
Nicole: Well, I had a question for the JK Rowling thing, but it didn’t work when I sent it in. It just kept saying “error”. I had a question about Horcruxes: what do you guys think, do you have to make them immediately after you’ve killed somebody or do you think you have to make them – like is there a specific amount of time, or can you make them at any time?
Kevin: I think you can make them…
Ben: I think you can make them anytime.
Kevin: Anytime, yeah.
Ben: Anytime, whenever.
Eric: Anytime?
Kevin: Mhm.
Eric: No!
Ben: Yup.
Eric: No, because I think it was something that had to be done during the exact act, the most heinous act of nature, when your soul actually splits. The way Slughorn described it, I thought it had to be done then, because if you remember, Dumbledore said he thinks that Voldemort went to the Potters’ house with only six Horcruxes – sorry, five Horcruxes. He was one Horcrux short, and he was “no doubt preparing to make his sixth Horcrux, meaning seven parts of soul, with the murder of the Potters.”
Kevin:Yes, but that doesn’t mean that you have to do it immediately.
Eric: I think it does.
Kevin:The argument that I would take against that is that the damage to your soul is never repaired, so therefore…
Eric: But you can’t harness…
Kevin:…you can always take your fragmented soul and separate it.
Eric: Yeah, maybe. Kind of like a hard drive.
Kevin: [laughs] Exactly. Maybe, yes. But that’s what I would think. I would say anytime after you commit the murder because the damage is already done.
Eric: But now, here’s a question, and I guess I’ll go onto what Nicole was saying. The whole thing where you split your soul and you make it – or you split your soul. Assuming that he splits it six times, are those six even parts of your soul, or is it actually exponential, where you’ll split it in half, and then half again, and then half again? So does one particular Horcrux have more of a soul in it than the others, or are they all spread out evenly? What do you guys think?
Kevin: Well, you have to remember that each time he separated his soul, he also became less human; and if that’s the case…
Eric: That doesn’t…
Jamie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kevin:…that means that you may be able to split it multiple times, as many times as you want, but each time you’re separating yourself and destroying yourself.
Eric: Well, that doesn’t really answer my question.
Ben: Right, but – yeah. But to answer his question, I think he means – okay, the first time you split it, then you have two halves. The next time you split it, you have a fourth, and eventually, you get down to…
Kevin:You go down to – exactly, yeah.
Eric: You have one forty-ninths, I guess.
Kevin:Yeah, you have so little of a soul that you’re not human, really.
Eric: But what exactly does it mean to have no – I mean, Dumbledore said that when Voldemort possessed Harry, he finally realized the comparison of a whole and untarnished soul against his own. But Voldemort can still be an amazing dictator and still kill a lot of people with his one forty-ninth a soul, or whatever it is, however that works. Even with one seventh a soul, he can still kill a lot of people and he can still do so much. So do you guys think – what do you speculate might be the outcome of having so little a soul? I mean, apparently it has a great deal to do with everything, but he’s still very much alive and he can still cast spells and he’s still incredibly powerful.
Jamie: I think that pretty much sums it up. [laughs]
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, that’s what I was going to say.
Jamie:I can’t actually think of any word that, in the English language, that you haven’t said in that sentence, Eric.
[Andrew, Eric, and Kevin laugh]
Eric: That doesn’t sum anything up.
Jamie: No, I think it’s a good point. But he’s still got his magical power, he’s still got the spells. He can still – I just think he can’t feel, he can’t love, he can’t feel emotion, he can’t do all those things…
Kevin: Exactly.
Jamie: But he can still kill people, which I’m sure he’s happy about.
Andrew: I don’t like that. Nicole, you still there?
Nicole: Yes? Yeah.
Eric: Congrats.
Andrew: Okay.
Nicole: Thanks for answering my questions.
Andrew: No problem.
Nicole: Oh, where should I pick it up? Should I just like, come up to you guys, or what?
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Well, I’ll send you an e-mail.
Kevin: We’ll send you a confirmation in an e-mail.
Eric: You know who to find.
Andrew: That’s right, Kevin Steck.
Nicole: Thanks – and listen, everybody. I love you, Andrew, Ben, Kevin, Jamie, Eric.
Jamie: Awww, she remembers.
Nicole: Pennsylvania rocks.
Eric: Oh, and Laura and Micah!
Nicole: And Laura and Micah.
Ben: [imitating Micah] What about me? What about me?
Eric: Hey, so you’re from Pennsylvania, right?
Ben: [imitating Micah] Why didn’t I get a shout out, Nicole? Nicole?
Nicole: Yes, I do.
Eric: Where in Pennsylvania? What part…
Nicole: Near Philadelphia.
Andrew: Don’t give away…
Ben: Don’t give away your location.
Eric: I’m under an hour away from Philly.
Ben: Eric’s going to stalk you.
Eric: You know where Reading is? You know where Reading is. Here, look up Reading and e-mail me.
Ben: It’s “Reading” [pronounces it reed-ing], actually.
Nicole: Okay.
Eric: We’ll hang out at Wawa.
Nicole: Yes, Wawa.
Eric: I’ll get a vanilla milkshake.
Nicole: Okay, everybody listen to MuggleCast and listen to The Podcast That Must Not Be Named. We’re Google-able. [laughs]
Ben: Bye, Nicole!
Kevin:Bye, thank you for the question.
Ben: So everybody, that does it for us from our podcasting center in New Jersey.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie’s British Joke of the Day
Andrew: What, Jamie?
Eric: Well, you know, it hasn’t exactly been an hour. We’ve been off air a lot.
Jamie:I haven’t done a joke.
Andrew: Oh, Jamie, do you have a joke?
Jamie: I do. Well, you see, I felt kind of guilty that I had repeated the same joke that I’ve repeated before; and in fact, Lisa, 16, from New York says, “Hi Jamie, I always love your British Jokes of the Day, thank you, but I couldn’t resist mentioning this. I’m sure other people will write in with the same comment, but I believe that you have in fact said your wasp joke in a previous episode of MuggleCast. It’s all good, though, because I had forgotten the punch line.”
Eric: Wait, did he?
Andrew: Jamie! I cannot believe you.
Jamie: Yeah, it’s terrible.
Kevin:You should…
Jamie: Sorry for this. I have got a new, previously unheard ever joke, okay?
Andrew: Oooo!
Jamie: So, I’ll start it out. You won’t ever have heard this before, ever, okay?
Eric: So this is another one, right?
Jamie: Yeah, this is new, this is new. Okay, ready?
Andrew: Before you say it, hold on, before you say it, once everyone’s finished hearing the joke, go to MuggleCast dot com slash live and let Jamie know what you think. Give it a rating of one to ten, ten being the best. Go ahead.
Kevin: [inaudible] …zeros.
Jamie: Okay. As I said, it’s brand new. You won’t have heard this before. There’s this guy, okay, and he’s an absolute expert on wasps, okay? He’s the best expert ever on wasps ever. [laughs] He’s the absolute world expert, and he’s walking down – in fact, no, I can’t be bothered with this now. You won’t have heard the start of that joke before. I’ll finish it off next week, though.
Andrew: I don’t get it, why’d you stop?
Jamie: Because, because…
Eric: Well, what happens at the end to the wasp expert? He’s just walking down the street until…
Jamie: But it was supposed to gain a laugh from the fact that I had said it again [laughs] the actual joke. I guess it isn’t funny the third time.
Eric: G-mail is flooded with, “That’s not funny, Jamie. Get a real life.”
Jamie: Oh, no.
Andrew: Awww.
Jamie: That’s just rude. Okay then, I’ll come up with a quick one…
Andrew: Here’s a quick feedback: “Zero for quality, ten for effort.”
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: I like that. Okay, then…
Andrew: Zack from North Carolina: “That joke deserves a ten.” Go ahead.
Jamie: [laughs] Okay, then. Did you hear the joke about the butter? And, as Eric should’ve said, “No, I didn’t. Tell me the joke about the butter.” And the answer is, “No, I won’t tell you the joke about the butter, you’ll only spread it.”
Eric: He says to his friend…
Andrew: [laughs] Wonderful.
Eric: …the toaster he’s friends with says, “No, don’t stop now, you’re on a roll. You’re on a roll.”
Jamie: Is he still going on about that?
Andrew: [laughs] That’s really weird, Skype has this new filter that automatically disconnects a person…
Jamie: [laughs] Okay, that’s good.
Andrew: …who’s saying these jokes and making no sense.
Show Close
Andrew: Before we go, a couple of last minute reminders. There will be no MuggleCast next week because…
[Jamie and Kevin gasp]
Andrew: …we are going to be in Vegas.
Ben: Live!
Jamie: Live, baby.
Andrew: Right. But we’re still going to have the Lumos one that will be released on the feed and will be live, as I just said. And do not forget, for episode…
Jamie: Are we going to be live, Andrew?
Andrew: Yes, we’re going to be live, in case I didn’t mention. And do not forget everyone, please call in – [laughs] not right now because we’re connected to it – please call in 1-218-20-MAGIC or the Australian – or England number…
Ben: British. British number.
Andrew: No, not British number, England!
Ben: UK!
Andrew: UK, there you go.
Ben: UK, British…same thing.
Jamie: That’s nice – British.
Andrew: …UK number, to leave your favorite moments from the show and any other thoughts that…
Jamie: The UKish number.
Andrew: …you have about MuggleCast, and we’ll be running them on Episode 51. Don’t forget our phone number: 1-218-20-MAGIC. The other numbers you can find online. The PO Box, Ben?
Ben: PO Box 223, Moundridge, Kansas, 67107. Send anything. I actually bring people their stuff this week, so…
[Show close music]
Jamie: Wow.
Ben: Yeah. Start sending your Christmas cards now so then they can get to Jamie. [laughs]
Jamie: Yeah, I’ve said this – before 2050.
Ben: Yup.
Jamie: You might just make the next millennium if you send them now.
Ben: [laughs] Well, that does it for us here on MuggleCast.
Andrew: Once again, I’m Andrew Sims.
Ben: I’m Ben Schoen.
Kevin: I’m Kevin Steck.
Ben: [imitating Eric] I’m Eric Scull.
Eric: No, I’m Eric Scull. I’m back. Thanks for inviting me back when we were closing.
Ben: [laughs] Oh.
Jamie:And I’m Jamie Lawrence.
Ben: Good night, everybody.
Eric: Good night!
Kevin: Goodbye.
Bloopers
Andrew: Oh, Jamie?
Jamie:Yes? Yes, Andrew?
Andrew: Oh, Jamie, you’re our first caller!
[Jamie and Andrew laugh]
Jamie: Well, hey, I’d just like to say that I really like Jamie. I think his jokes are absolutely excellent. I’ve always liked him so much. I think his points are fantastic, so yeah, I just wanted to say thanks very much.
Ben: But – but hey, don’t you think that Jamie reuses the same jokes over and over again?
Jamie: I…
Ben: Wouldn’t you say that’s a fair estimate?
Jamie: I think he might do sometimes; but to be honest, his way of telling them is just so fantastic. I’m enthralled from beginning to end, and after I come out of this amazing sort of daydream during the show, I’m so amazed I can’t even remember my own name. So, you know…
———————–
Written by: Micah, Adrienne, Jean, Judy, Mandie, Megan, Sarah, Shannon and Shelly